SUPPORTING YOUR HEALING SINCE 1994
We are life partners who’ve been in a committed relationship for over 17 years. We turned to Reiki after Paula was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. In the months that followed, Katie became a level 2 Reiki practitioner; she continues to treat Paula, who is in remission. This is our story.
Paula: In November 2008, I passed out at work. I thought I had bad stomach flu, but I was rushed to the emergency room with dangerously low blood pressure and, it turned out, internal bleeding. My pelvic cavity was, as my doctor later summed it up, "a mess." What unfolded over the next days was a diagnosis that hit me and my partner, Katie, like a truck running us over and then backing up and running us over again for good measure. Endometrial cancer had spread into my ovaries and lymph nodes, and was even showing up as small spots on my lungs.
I was 54 and was rarely sick. I ate well, and exercised moderately. Just a week earlier, Katie and I had been riding our bikes for miles. Now, I had metastatic cancer.
In the space of six weeks, I underwent four surgeries. Through them, my body held up amazingly well, probably because I had been fairly healthy to begin with. My oncologist was satisfied that she had removed as much of the cancer as she could find.
But then there was chemo itself, the pumping of poison into my bloodstream. Given my advanced stage, the oncologist recommended a course of nine rounds, three weeks apart. Things went according to plan for the first two rounds. With the third round, however, problems started to arise. The day prior to my third treatment, the chemo nurse called with surprising news: my blood work showed a low platelet count, and chemo would have to be postponed until the number topped 100. Was there anything I could do? Something I could eat? "Just rest," she said, "and wait."
It took a little over a week for my platelets to inch up, eight or nine at a time, until they passed the 100 mark and I could receive chemo. But that third round effectively wiped out my immune system. On a windy day in late March, I came home from walking my dog and complained to Katie that I couldn't warm up. In fact, I was shaking all over, even when she tucked me into bed under numerous blankets. My temperature was closing in on 100. The thing that all chemo patients fear had hit me: I was hospitalized for two and a half days with an infection "of unknown origin."
The good news was that after the third round of chemo, the spots in my lungs were
gone: "We have resolution," my oncologist said, giving me a high-
That's when I read a listing for a Reiki Open House in the newsletter of the Cancer
Caring Center, a hands-
Katie: The night I went to the Cancer Caring Center for the Reiki Open House with Paula was a turning point in my life. Although I had been a devoted Iyengar yoga practitioner for over ten years—waking up every morning at 4:30 a.m. to practice; attending workshops with such luminaries as Manuso Mano; and reading everything I could about yoga and the quest for the true self—I was heartbroken and devastated by Paula’s diagnosis and cried every day for months. I felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and fear, and none of the practices I had devoted myself to for so many years seemed to be helping me. So when Paula asked me if I wanted to attend the Reiki Open House, I immediately said yes; I had witnessed her positive response to Reiki years ago, and I wanted to do anything that I could to help her, but I secretly hoped that Reiki would help me, too.
The Reiki practioners arrived for the Open House, and I remember feeling receptive,
open, and eager—perhaps too eager. I appreciated their expertise, wisdom, and guidance
and felt hopeful about what they were saying: that we each have an innate human capacity
to heal and that life is far bigger than the physical realm. Western medicine saved
Paula’s life with emergency surgery and chemotherapy, and she is now in remission,
but Western medicine manages disease more than it creates health and emotional and
spiritual well-
The morning after the Open House I called Key Stone Reiki to inquire about further
study, and by the end of April I embarked on level I Reiki training. The weekend-
I spent the summer of 2009 treating Paula almost daily—with the assistance of our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Lucy—as she continued her chemotherapy treatments, and while the treatments were always difficult for her, she was never hospitalized again. I also organized Reiki treatments with my friends and colleagues, as a way to thank them for offering me love and support during this most difficult time. Treating Paula and my friends offered me a way to reclaim the reality of love and connection, instead of the delusional world of bitterness, anger, and despair. By early August, I had began level 2 Reiki training, which provided me with more skills and a better handle on the subtle world of energy that surrounds us.
Through this journey, I continue to make powerful shifts in perspective and actively create a deeper understanding of life. And I have also made new "Reiki friends." These wonderful people are expansive, compassionate, and open to accepting life as it is—in all of its richness, heartbreak, and possibility. I am grateful to them for their love, compassion, and support.
Paula and Katie are grateful for each day, and for each other and Lucy. In combination with Reiki, they also practice yoga, listen to guided meditations and healing music, and eat a mostly organic diet.
Winter, 2009
Katie and Lucy, the Reiki pup!